Lest any readers wonder if the deadline of this project will come and go, as with most 365 initiatives, fear not. With the scant free minutes peppered thither and yon, I am putting the icing on the cake, and there will be a launch in just over a month.
Steps to completion:
1) Finish rewrite of 'Commons' lyrics.
2) Re-record portions of 'Commons.'
3) Revisit final mixes; make last-minute adjustments.
4) Hire a friend (TBD) to master the recording.
5) Apply for copyrights to all songs and recordings.
6) Release this thing!
With chisel in one hand and mallet in the other, I have been buffing and polishing the chorus of 'Commons.' Here's the old:
Black hand, white hand
Gripping each other
Dance in circles
Sister and brother
Leaping, glittered splash
Underneath the fountain
Fifteen miles
A world apart
There's plenty of time
For broken hearts
Drink the moment
At the barefoot Commons
And at last, my latest (and possibly final) revision:
Black and white
A spectrum of color
Up or down
One life or the other?
Is it dark or light
Underneath the fountain?
Fifteen miles
A world away
Dawn, the tale
Of night and day
Seek the moment
At the barefoot Commons.
I think I am going to chew on that over the course of the weekend. Feedback is embraced as always.
Showing posts with label The Redline Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Redline Project. Show all posts
Friday, September 10, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
1st Quarter Update
An unexpected side effect of plugging away at the Redline Project is having a pointed awareness of just how speedily a set of months can slip away. Tonight is March 31st, relegating the first three months of 2010 to the past and leaving only nine in the future.
Does this shock anyone else? We just sipped champagne and exploded poppers roughly 14 days ago. How can March 2010 be hours from vanishing?
As my custom has become at the close of each month, I am taking the opportunity to scrutinize the successes and failures of the Redline Project. Where has there been progress? Where has the momentum slacked a bit? What needs to happen to keep this initiative moving forward? Are we on track for an album release on October 31?
Let's commence with the plusses. In three months, I have acquired more than enough gear to adequately record, edit, and publish an album. Many of the acquisitions (including an electric guitar, microphones, and studio monitors) are borrowed instead of purchased, which is the only way I have managed to stay within a budget of $1,000.
Speaking of budget, I am thrilled to announce that while I have spent far less than $1,000 on the Redline Project ($877 to be exact), I have sold $900 worth of bikes and related gear to offset the cost. This has required a sizable and complicated effort. If anyone has ever tried auctioning items under Ebay's asinine new user feedback policies, you know that sellers have no recourse to deal with feisty, manipulative, or deadbeat buyers.
As I write this blog post, I received an email from one such buyer who is demanding more money back from me than he ever payed for an item sold 'as is.' Lovely. Ebay is wonderful, and Ebay sucks eggs. If someone with the username jmdesigns2 tries to buy an item from you, run far and run fast.
Frustrations considered, piecing together a basic recording studio for zero dollars is a grand success, and one that pleases my wife as well.
This month, I wrote what I consider to be my best songs so far. The tally so far is nine, including vocal and instrumental numbers. Several pieces are five minutes in length, and some are longer. Mind you, these are not final recorded versions; the tracks are currently scratch recordings meant to capture the basic form and textures of each composition.
With a baby boy coming to join our family around the first of July, I have decided that the Redline Project's final product will feature 10 original pieces of music. Originally I was aiming for 12, but I needed to adjust in order to keep the project moving forward as I prepare for fatherhood.
After the scratch recording roadmaps are all pieced together, the next step is to scrap and re-record just about everything. Three or four months worth of knowledge is virtually nothing when compared to giants of the recording industry with decades of experience lining their pockets. Om short, I am a noob. That said, I know considerably more than I did 83 posts ago, and I am hoping this base of knowledge will lend a relatively clean and polished sound to the final cuts.
Is the Redline Project on schedule? The answer, according to the original array of deadlines, is a resounding yes. I am supposed to complete all the rough cuts by May 15, which is still a month and a half out. If I Complete one more composition and two more recordings by then, I can draw a red line (pun intended) through this mile marker.
Nevertheless, I feel hopelessly behind. After the scratch tracks are complete, I must get to work recording palatable music that is at least somewhat iPod-worthy. Then comes the mixing process, with the mastering procedures hot on the tail. If these daunting tasks somehow are accomplished by October 31, I then must climb the mountain of distribution. At a glance, this final step is made easier by offering the music free of charge to anyone and everyone, but that in turn complicates the matter as it begs questions of copyright issues and distribution venues.
[Insert panicked nail biting here]
Scores of miles fade into the rearview mirror as hundreds more appear on the horizon. As this project turns into something of a second full-time job, the television tempts me with endless chasm mind-numbing nothingness. But I will press on. I will create. I will get heard.
Does this shock anyone else? We just sipped champagne and exploded poppers roughly 14 days ago. How can March 2010 be hours from vanishing?
As my custom has become at the close of each month, I am taking the opportunity to scrutinize the successes and failures of the Redline Project. Where has there been progress? Where has the momentum slacked a bit? What needs to happen to keep this initiative moving forward? Are we on track for an album release on October 31?
Let's commence with the plusses. In three months, I have acquired more than enough gear to adequately record, edit, and publish an album. Many of the acquisitions (including an electric guitar, microphones, and studio monitors) are borrowed instead of purchased, which is the only way I have managed to stay within a budget of $1,000.
Speaking of budget, I am thrilled to announce that while I have spent far less than $1,000 on the Redline Project ($877 to be exact), I have sold $900 worth of bikes and related gear to offset the cost. This has required a sizable and complicated effort. If anyone has ever tried auctioning items under Ebay's asinine new user feedback policies, you know that sellers have no recourse to deal with feisty, manipulative, or deadbeat buyers.
As I write this blog post, I received an email from one such buyer who is demanding more money back from me than he ever payed for an item sold 'as is.' Lovely. Ebay is wonderful, and Ebay sucks eggs. If someone with the username jmdesigns2 tries to buy an item from you, run far and run fast.
Frustrations considered, piecing together a basic recording studio for zero dollars is a grand success, and one that pleases my wife as well.
This month, I wrote what I consider to be my best songs so far. The tally so far is nine, including vocal and instrumental numbers. Several pieces are five minutes in length, and some are longer. Mind you, these are not final recorded versions; the tracks are currently scratch recordings meant to capture the basic form and textures of each composition.
With a baby boy coming to join our family around the first of July, I have decided that the Redline Project's final product will feature 10 original pieces of music. Originally I was aiming for 12, but I needed to adjust in order to keep the project moving forward as I prepare for fatherhood.
After the scratch recording roadmaps are all pieced together, the next step is to scrap and re-record just about everything. Three or four months worth of knowledge is virtually nothing when compared to giants of the recording industry with decades of experience lining their pockets. Om short, I am a noob. That said, I know considerably more than I did 83 posts ago, and I am hoping this base of knowledge will lend a relatively clean and polished sound to the final cuts.
Is the Redline Project on schedule? The answer, according to the original array of deadlines, is a resounding yes. I am supposed to complete all the rough cuts by May 15, which is still a month and a half out. If I Complete one more composition and two more recordings by then, I can draw a red line (pun intended) through this mile marker.
Nevertheless, I feel hopelessly behind. After the scratch tracks are complete, I must get to work recording palatable music that is at least somewhat iPod-worthy. Then comes the mixing process, with the mastering procedures hot on the tail. If these daunting tasks somehow are accomplished by October 31, I then must climb the mountain of distribution. At a glance, this final step is made easier by offering the music free of charge to anyone and everyone, but that in turn complicates the matter as it begs questions of copyright issues and distribution venues.
[Insert panicked nail biting here]
Scores of miles fade into the rearview mirror as hundreds more appear on the horizon. As this project turns into something of a second full-time job, the television tempts me with endless chasm mind-numbing nothingness. But I will press on. I will create. I will get heard.
Monday, March 15, 2010
A Magnificent Dilemma
Though the Redline Project blog is not a venue for my personal life, I can not help but exclaim the marvels of what started as an ordinary day.
My wife and I have been working and waiting for two and a half years to receive word from South Korea that they had a child for our family. We were expecting to hear news to this effect months ago, but week after week slid by in silence.
What commenced as an average Monday morphed into a prodigious milestone with a simple phone call. In a matter of three or four months, my wife and I will travel to Seoul to become a family of three. Cheers!
For the record, we are welcoming a marvelous boy of six months with an open face, midnight eyes, and a smile that sends laughter bouncing around the room. I have only laid eyes on a handful of photographs and already I am madly in love.
Of course, this poses a rack of hurdles for the Redline Project. As an active father of none, I am free to scamper after the muse until all hours. What is to become of this humble venture as I step up to the calling of fatherhood?
Good question. I don't know.
Perhaps the whole thing will come tumbling down leaving only plumes of failure in its wake. Maybe the goals perched atop this page will join the ranks of all that remains unaccomplished in my life. The Redline Project finds itself at a definitive fulcrum. From here, I either ramp up the effort or throw in the towel.
With a handful of months standing in the gap between the day my son finally comes home and today, I choose to put my feet to the fire. The goal of making a releasable album of music pulses liquid life through my veins, and giving up would be nothing short of tragic. I shall continue, and the music shall be heard.
My wife and I have been working and waiting for two and a half years to receive word from South Korea that they had a child for our family. We were expecting to hear news to this effect months ago, but week after week slid by in silence.
What commenced as an average Monday morphed into a prodigious milestone with a simple phone call. In a matter of three or four months, my wife and I will travel to Seoul to become a family of three. Cheers!
For the record, we are welcoming a marvelous boy of six months with an open face, midnight eyes, and a smile that sends laughter bouncing around the room. I have only laid eyes on a handful of photographs and already I am madly in love.
Of course, this poses a rack of hurdles for the Redline Project. As an active father of none, I am free to scamper after the muse until all hours. What is to become of this humble venture as I step up to the calling of fatherhood?
Good question. I don't know.
Perhaps the whole thing will come tumbling down leaving only plumes of failure in its wake. Maybe the goals perched atop this page will join the ranks of all that remains unaccomplished in my life. The Redline Project finds itself at a definitive fulcrum. From here, I either ramp up the effort or throw in the towel.
With a handful of months standing in the gap between the day my son finally comes home and today, I choose to put my feet to the fire. The goal of making a releasable album of music pulses liquid life through my veins, and giving up would be nothing short of tragic. I shall continue, and the music shall be heard.
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